Every now and then an app pops up that looks like it was designed entirely for people like us. And by us, I mean tech reviewers, enthusiasts, and people who just somehow end up with more gadgets to maintain than we know what to do with. In this situation, it can be challenging to keep up with all the electronics and make sure each device is charged enough for use. Potential is a new app (still in beta) that can keep track of everything's battery life from a single location, and with its slick Material-inspired design, it looks good doing it.

What It Does

Potential is an app for monitoring the status of multiple devices from a single spot. The idea is to keep all of your electronics in working order, for a tablet is no good if it's always dead when you're ready to pull it out, and if you don't use the device daily, it can be quite the hassle to manually remember to check on it and charge it during the downtime. This app lets you peek on things from afar and toggle Bluetooth and Wi-Fi remotely to squeeze extra juice out of products you're not currently using.

Potential requires you to create an account, which it does automatically when you attempt to sign in with an email address and password. To add new devices, you simply install the app and sign in on each one you want to use. It will then begin to monitor everything automatically. I'm not sure exactly how often the app syncs, but you can pull to refresh things automatically.

If you use Windows 8/8.1, you can also follow things from the comfort of your desktop using dedicated software. I don't, so I wasn't able to test this feature out. Personally, I don't care all that much. I always have my phone nearby, and that's the device I'm most inclined to pick up to manage everything else.

In terms of options, there isn't much to see here. You can rename each device by hitting the menu next to each one.

To tweak anything else, you need to purchase the full version of the app. There's no option to do this. You just get hit with a purchase prompt when you go to enable notifications. 99 cents will turn that feature on, and it will also remove those banner ads at the bottom of the screen in the process. Afterwards, you can set Potential to send you a notification when a device is low on juice, saving you from having to open the app and manually check everything's status.

Should You Download It?

Potential is still in beta, and it shows. Options are sparse, and Bluetooth/Wi-Fi status didn't always match the device. Expect to encounter bugs here and there. Fortunately, battery life appears to be accurate, and that's what I would consider Potential's most appealing aspect.

The developers intend to add in Android Wear integration, a widget, and Mac/Linux support in the future. Even in its current state, the app is already worth a look. Frankly, Potential shows a lot of potential, and I look forward to seeing it mature.

Can y'all kindly shut the hell up about Android L/Nexus in the comments section of posts that have nothing to do with them?

Cory S

With Android L this app will be come irrelevant because of project volta

/s

Arthur

Isn't Project Volta just another Google initiative targeting lower battery life usage but not a customizable or usable feature by the end user. Similar to what was done with Project Butter.

Imparus

Depending on whatever or not they include the new power saving feature (like the HTC one) as part of project volta.

MeCampbell30

He was using hyperbole to praise Android L for it's improved battery life, the implication being that an app that shows battery use will become obsolete because phone now last so long monitoring battery life is pointless.

Also, whoosh.

Arthur

How much of an improvement the final version of L provides is still unknown but I hope the Project Volta initiative does as much for battery life as Project Butter did for overall system performance.

Plus portability to other environments, such as Amazon App Store. Amazon's hobbled ecosystem doesn't support Google Sign-in using the typical native Android services, as they've removed that functionality from their fork completely. Sad...

Yeah but they can simply use an authentication broker to handle all of these different types of logins. I know Microsoft Azure offers great (mostly free) options for something like this - I suspect there are many others as well.

But many of us don't want to use a Facebook account everywhere, so I'd rather sites still offer their own login method. Ideally they'd offer other login options too, but that's clearly harder, not easier.

Once upon a time there was a system called OpenID, which was intended as a way to allow logins for multiple sites, that was decentralised (anyone could run an OpenID server). But it seemed to be rejected by people, on the grounds it'd be insecure to use a login for more than one site. Now we're not only supposed to use the same login for everywhere, but to have Facebook having all the control?

pmbasehore

The Windows8 app is...bad. It's ugly, the widgets don't line up, the "exit" icon doesn't actually exit, it just logs you out...and so on. I understand it's beta, but hopefully they do more work on this avenue as well.

Fatal1ty_93_RUS

MY EYES

Cory S

It's even funnier with the app name "Potential" above that mess.

Fatal1ty_93_RUS

oh the irony, they didn't make the most out of the app's POTENTIAL there

Not sure how this happened. I posted this comment, the picture didn't show so I deleted it the comment but it stayed around (but now shows as Guest) and now the image displays. Disqus is strange sometimes.

TheAlgy

Looks as good as any other W8 app I have.

Jon Langevin

Soo... if you toggle off Wifi via this app, for a wifi-only device, I presume the app is then ineffective for that device going forward... Would be nice to have it turn wifi on/off for periodic updates afterwards.

thisguy

this

Aman

|Potential is still in beta

Hehe

MrNinjaPanda

I've created something similar using Tasker and Pushbullet.

I activate task on my phone, it sends Pushbullet notification to my tablet, which sends back a notification with battery status. I also created some more options, like when battery on my tablet gets below 30%, it sends notification to my phone; and also I get notification when my tablet is fully charged.